Mounting assemblage for electrical circuits



y 9, 1961 G. WILLIAMS ETAL 2,983,892

MOUNTING ASSEMBLAGE FOR ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS Filed Nov. 14, 1958 INVENTORS FIG. 4 4-0 V II I 5 GERALpZh/MMAM:

/8 l2 w *9 BY WARD MIA/6E sou. 32 4/ L? M 4 W Igraxwsr United States Patent MOUNTING ASSEMBLAGE FOR ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS Gerald I. Williams and Ward H. Ingersoll, St. Paul, M nn assrgnors to Transistor Electronics Corporation, Minneapolis, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota Filed Nov. 14, 1958, Ser. No. 773,961

3 Claims. (Cl. 339-48) This invention relates to electrical circuits, and more particularly to a mounting assemblage for establishing any of a multiplicity of circuits.

In educational and experimental work in electronics and even basic electricity, it becomes desirable to lay out actual working circuits which can be set up quickly and efiiciently without initial planning and drafting of circuit diagrams, and which make it possible to visually trace the circuits without efiort. It is within the contemplation of this invention and a general object thereof to provide a mounting assemblage for such working circuits which can be set up or dismantled with ease.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a mounting assemblage which can be modified or expanded indefinitely without dismantling the portion of circuit system which has already been set up.

Another object of the invention is to provide an assemblage of the character described in which all electrical connections are solderless and can be made and broken quickly and surely.

A still further object of the invention is to provide special plugs in the mounting assemblage which have multiple function when secured cooperatively with respect to mounting boards and to each other.

These and other objects and advantages of our invention will more fully appear from the following description, made in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the several views and in which:

Figure l is a perspective view showing randomly mounted plugs in a single panel, representative conductors and electrical devices being secured thereacross to establish a circuit;

Figure 2 shows a plurality of panels or boards in top plan View joined by special clip means, and a pair of plugs inserted at random and oriented to receive an electrical conductor;

Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical section of a segment of joined panels showing the panel clip and taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a similar segment in vertical section showing another form of clip means and taken on the line 44 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a side elevation of a plug element, a portion of another plug element connected thereto being shown in dotted line representation;

Figure 6 is an enlarged vertical section of a plug element taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 5; and

Figure 7 is a top plan view of a plug element taken in the direction of the arrows 7-7 in Figure 6.

With continued reference to the drawing, our mounting assemblage includes a panel or board 10, plug units 11 adapted to be randomly mounted on the panel 10. Where our invention is adapted for expansibility, means for clipping the panels together is shown generally at 12 and another form of clipping means having special additional function is designated generally by the numeral 13.

It is intended that any simple or complex circuit systern can be mounted on our mounting assemblage by expanding a plurality of the panels 10 in any of a number of configurations. Further, electrical plug members can be frictionally mounted at any of a multiplicity of posi tions and will provide an electrical terminal for conductors which may be frictionally mounted at a position intermediate their ends or by endwise frictional insertion thereinto. The plugs are all capable of orientation in any direction for 360 so as to align clipping and conductorreceiving means with those of another plug.

In more detail and with reference to Fig. l, the board or panel 10 is constructed of rigid dielectric material and is rectilinear in form, the shape of the board illustrated being square. Board 10 has an exposed flat surface 14 and is provided with vertical side edges 15 which are planar in character and capable of abutting with another similar board 10. The board 10 is provided with a plurality of sockets or openings 16 which are modularly arranged so that each of the sockets 16 will lie equidistant from its adjoining sockets. The modular arrangement is carried forward when the boards 10 are joined in abutting relation, as shown in Fig. 2. The distance from an edge 15 to the nearest sockets 16 is half the distance of an opening 16 to its neighboring opening in a line parallel to an edge 15. Thus, it will be observed in Fig. 2 that, where edges 15 are abutted in plane 17, the

' With the arrangement noted, a plurality of panels or boards 10 can be joined in any configuration by adding additional panels to any exposed edge 15. 'The panels may be joined by one or more simple clips 12, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, the clips being provided with legs 18 lying in spaced parallel relation the same distance that one of the sockets 16 is spaced from its opposed neighbor across the plane 17. Thus, the clips 12 may be utilized at any convenient location where the sockets are not already occupied so as to secure the panels in rigidly assembled relation.

Referring to Fig. 3, a special clip 13 may perform a dual function in that it has an upstanding panel 19' and prongs or legs 20 spaced in the same manner to join neighboring sockets either within a panel surface 14 or across abutting edges 15 at the plane 17 as previously described. The special clip 13 is useful in that the panel 19 is provided with openings 21 and 22 for mounting control elements, switches, indicators and the like which are intended to be inserted in one or more circuits. The panel 19 is relatively smaller than panel 10 so as not to interfere with other elements mounted on the same board.

For establishing the circuit itself, we employ plugs shown in detail in Figs. 5, 6 and 7. The plugs 11 are electrically conductive and have a body portion 23 which terminates downwardly in a prong 24 which may be of the banana type having longitudinally slit spring means 25 for frictionally clipping a socket and, at the same time, establishing electrical contact therewith. In the instant case, prong 24is secured to the body 23 by a cap screw 26 which is threadedly mounted on a depending boss 27, as shown in Fig. 6. Cap screw 26 has a shouldered reduced opening 28' for gripping the flanged ends 29 of spring members 25. An elongated bar 30 is carreid within the spring members 25 and is inserted into an opening 31 within the body 23 so as to rigidify the banana-type prong 24.

At the upper end of plug body 23 is a socket 32 which is adapted to receive electrical prongs such as prong 24 or terminal plugs 33 of conventional structure, as shown in Fig. 1. Additional smaller sockets 34 are also formed in the body 23 so as to receive the ends 35 of conductor 36, asshown in Fig. 1.

Also forming a part of each plug 11 are capping means such as the spring clip 37, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The spring clips 37 are electrically conductive and are disposed at the side of the body 23, as shown. They are secured at their lower ends 33 by the cap screw 26 and are biased inwardly at their upper ends 39 so as to normally press against the sides of body 23. The upper ends 39 are rounded so as to produce a'groove or mouth 40 at the sides of body 23. The spring clips 37 are provided with side flanges 41 which are directed inwardly, as shown in the top view of Fig. 7. Thus, when a wire in inserted into the mouth 40 and pressed downwardly, the spring clip 37 will yield outwardly while the side edge flanges 41 will bite into the conductor and establish good electrical contact. In the form shown, the body 26 is'square and, hence, the groove or opening 40 defines a plane at each of the four faces 42 about the body 23, as shown in Fig. 7. The individual plugs 11 are intended not only to be frictionally retained in any of the sockets 16 but also to be oriented in any desired direction. Thus, referring to Fig. 2, the plugs 11 have been so oriented as to diagonally align their respective gripping clips 37 diagonally from one board to the other so that a wire conductor 43 can be stretched and mounted between the plugs by merely pressing simultaneously downward into the aligned spring clips 37, as shown.

Randomly mounted electrical elements are shown in Fig. 1 and may include such elements as wire 36, transisters 44, resistors 45, and any other suitable elements ordinarily designed to be mounted in an electrical circuit. Since the plugs 11 are electrically conductive, any wire or conducting element secured to the plug will be in electrical contact with another element secured at a difierent position to the same plug.

In some instances, it may be desirable to electrically insulate one plug from another when interfitted, as in Fig. 5. In such case, either the prong 24 or the socketed body 23 of the lowermost plug 11 may be constructed of dielectric material. Thus, in a mounting assemblage, a few such dielectric plugs can be used where it is desired to have electrically independent plugs mounted at the same location on a board. In other instances, it may be desired to increase the number of electrical contacts at a 1 single location and, in such case, the completely conductive plugs may be stacked at a single location, the depending prong of the upper plugs being inserted into the sockets of the lower. Certain of the plugs 11 can also be used for terminals in providing a source of electrical energy as indicated at 46 in Fig. 1. Battery assemblage 46 has conductors 47 and 48 provided with conventional terminals 33 which are inserted into respective sockets or openings 32 in a pair of the plugs 11, as shown.

It can be readily observed that our mounting assemblage permits the addition of any mounting configuration whether or not such configuration was planned in advance of constructing a circuit.

Furthermore, the plugs 11 can be inserted at any location and may be rotated to alignment with any other plugs so as to quickly and easily receive an electrical conductor. The entire mounting assemblage utilizes no screws or permanent connections and maintains all elements and interconnections in visible condition for easy tracing of the circuits. When it is desire dto modify or dismount the assemblage, the elements may be quickly separated by simply pulling them apart.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangements and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of our invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What we claim is:

1. An expandible mounting assemblage for laying out an electrical circuit which comprises, a plurality of mounting boards, each provided with mutually spaced sockets at an exposed surface thereof and having abutting edges for contiguously joining each board to at least one other, clipping means for holding the contiguously joined boards firmly together, said clipping means being provided with an upstanding mounting panel of relatively smaller size than that of the boards, and a plurality of conductive plugs, each having a prong and at least one of said plugs being mounted in each of said boards, said plugs each having conductor-receiving and clipping means, and a circuit conductor linking each plug with another.

2. A mounting assemblage for electrical circuits comprising, a panel having a multiplicity of sockets of uniform size in mutually spaced and electrically insulated relation, a plurality of electrically conductive terminal plugs, each said terminal plug having an expandible prong frictionally inserted and rotatable in one of said sockets,

and each said terminal plug having a multiple sided body portion to which said expandible prong is attached thereunder, said body portion having a spring clip flange means on each side thereof for securing conductors thereto, said body portion also provided with a socket for receiving an expandible prong of a similar terminal plug, whereby all conductors or plugs attached to said terminal plug are in electrical contact with each other.

3. A pronged electrical conducting plug for mounting at one of a multiplicity of positions on a mounting panel, said plug comprising a body portion, a downwardly extending friction prong, an upwardly directed socket adapted to fn'ctionally receive the prong of another plug, and a plurality of electrically interconnected spring clips secured about the body, each of said clips having flanged side margins directed inwardly toward the body for pressing into a wire conductor and making good electrical contact therewith and presenting a fine receiving mouth for frictionally yielding and gripping a wire conductor when inserted thereto.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,062,690 Weynand Dec. 1, 1936 2,295,266 Obszarny Sept. 8, 1942 2,390,706 Hearon Dec. 11, 1945 2,636,067 Kraft Apr. 21, 1953 2,885,602 Emerson et al. May 5, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 248,616 Great Britain Mar. 11, 1926 275,225 Great Britain Nov. 3, 1927 

